Free Republic

After fleeing poverty in his native Uruguay, Miguel Angel Ortiz settled in Hampton Roads and established himself as an expert welder. He formed his own business and obtained shipyard contracts worth more than $1 million. Married with three children, the youngest about 10 months old, he had been living in a stately waterfront home in Virginia Beach. Two full-size bronze lions were perched out front near a four-tier fountain. He drove a Hummer and had a spare in the driveway. Ortiz built this life using someone else’s identity and after racking up an extensive arrest record in this country.His case...

Two men are facing federal drug charges after they were stopped for driving erratically on I-75. Federal agents said Hector Guajardo and Jose Lara admitted they were involved in drug sales. On Aug. 29, Trooper Kevin Hoppe spotted the vehicle on I-75 northbound going into the emergency lane several times. He said the headlights of the vehicle were not on, though it was raining. He said Guajardo was driving, but did not have a driver's license. The trooper said a search of the vehicle revealed 10 kilos of cocaine and three of heroin. Guajardo said each was to be paid...

NORFOLK - A Virginia Beach resident admitted in court to supplying illegal immigrants with phony green cards and other documents from a taco stand. Narciso M. Salas pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Thursday to conspiracy and identity theft charges and faces up to seven years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 8. Over the past two years, hundreds of illegal immigrants received the documents, which are needed to gain employment, according to federal court records. Another 246 orders were recovered from Salas' home at the Colony Mobile Home Park. Salas and his sister, Maria R. Salas,...

Princeton University sociologist Douglas S. Massey reports that 62 percent of illegal immigrants pay income taxes (via withholding) and 66 percent contribute to Social Security. Forbes magazine notes that Mexican illegals aren't clogging up the social-services system: only 5 percent receive food stamps or unemployment assistance; 10 percent send kids to public schools. ~~~~snip~~~~ Economist Larry Kudlow praises Hispanic entrepreneurship: "According to 2002 Census Bureau data, Hispanics are opening businesses at a rate three times faster than the national average. In addition, there were almost 1.6 million Hispanic-owned businesses generating $222 billion in revenue in 2002." ~~~~snip~~~~ Total crime and...

A prosecutor described in nightmarish detail yesterday the rape, mutilation and killing of a Rockland County housewife, allegedly at the hands of a worker who was supposed to be power-washing her deck. The assault on Mary Nagle was so brutal that crime-scene investigators found a piece of her ear and hanks of her hair scattered around her bedroom, District Attorney Michael Bongiorno said at the start of the murder trial. One of the victim's fingers was nearly amputated as she tried to fend off her attacker.

Speaking at a press conference Thursday, DPS Capt. Audra Livingston said Stone pulled over Ramon Ramos, 37, and Francisco Saucedo, 38, both of Tulsa, Okla., for a speeding violation. "After advising the driver of the truck the reason for the stop, Trooper Stone developed probable cause to arrest the driver. During the arrest the driver pulled a 9 mm handgun from his waistband and began firing the weapon point-blank at Trooper Stone, striking him in the left shoulder," he said. "The passenger and driver then began firing multiple rounds at Trooper Stone as he lay in the barditch."

Authorities said two victims were recovering from gunshot wounds after a shooting at an alleged immigrant smuggling house Tuesday morning. The house was allegedly being used in an illegal immigrant smuggling operation. Houston police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials responded to the scene at 9011 Sandpiper in southwest Houston around 9 a.m. after residents reported hearing gunshots in the neighborhood. Two people were wounded, but police aren’t sure who shot them. The victims were transported to Ben Taub and Memorial Herman Hospital. Their conditions aren’t known. Police said a bullet broke through a window at a house across the...

Illegal immigrants in car that hit, killed Palm Beach principal Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A car that hit and killed a middle school principal as she drove to school was carrying five illegal Mexican immigrants, authorities said. The driver, Carlos Mejia, 30, apparently ran a red light Wednesday morning colliding with a car driven by Margaret "Peggy" Campbell, principal of Western Pines Middle, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. Mejia and his four unidentified passengers were being held at the Krome Detention Center in Miami-Dade County awaiting deportation proceedings, officials said. Immigration investigators are trying...

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) "claims that he is being intentionally excluded from this weekend's big GOP gathering in Memphis," the Tennessean reports. "The conference, which is expected to be one of the largest gatherings of Republicans before the 2008 national convention, will include speeches from six men who are eyeing a White House bid." The Hotline has the latest from the conference.

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Two U.S. Border Patrol agents were arrested Thursday on charges of sneaking illegal immigrants out of jail in exchange for $300,000 in cash bribes. Mario Alvarez, 44, and Samuel McClaren, 43, released inmates from an immigration jail to a smuggling ring that operates in El Centro, about 120 miles east of San Diego, according to a federal complaint filed in January and unsealed Thursday. The smugglers then allegedly took the migrants to Los Angeles. The agents were assigned to a joint effort between the Border Patrol and Mexico's attorney general's office under which migrants arrested in...

Thousands of hapless travelers were trapped Wednesday on the Long Beach Freeway, and a possibly related accident resulted in the death of one man, as police waited out a kidnapping suspect whose getaway car had stalled on the highway. SNIP One hour turned to another, and the stretch of freeway that carries 215,000 vehicles a day remained gridlocked as morning turned to afternoon. More than four hours later, a man in a white T-shirt wanted in the reported kidnapping of a young woman late last year emerged from a maroon Ford minivan in South Gate and gave himself up. SNIP...

A young woman was killed and 16 passengers were hospitalized when a van packed with suspected illegal immigrants rolled over on a rural road Wednesday, authorities said. Mario Olguin of Vista was arrested and will be charged with felony hit and run and vehicular manslaughter, the California Highway Patrol said. Authorities identified Olguin, 20, as the driver of the 1988 Ford Econoline van, which was carrying 18 suspected illegal immigrants. The dead woman, 21 years old, was not identified. The van was traveling at an "unsafe speed" in the predawn darkness when Olguin lost control, the CHP said. The van...

ROLLA, Kan. (AP) - A pickup truck carrying 19 illegal immigrants from Mexico crashed on a rural highway after a rear wheel came off, killing three people and injuring 16, authorities said. The pickup flipped over and landed in a ditch, said Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Ron Knoefel. Nine people were riding in the truck's extended cab - four on the front seat, four in the back seat, and one on the floor between the seats, Knoefel said. He said the 10 others were in the truck's bed, which was covered with a camper shell. At least one of the...

A Georgia Republican says President Bush needs to immediately order at least 36,000 federal troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to stop a flood of illegal aliens. "There's no excuse for this. We know right now how to bring this flood of illegal immigration to a virtual halt within the next two weeks," Rep. Charlie Norwood said during a House floor speech this week. "We need somewhere between 36,000 and 48,000 troops immediately deployed to the southern border. "We need the president to order the Department of Defense to fund the mission 100 percent," Mr. Norwood said. "And we need new...

There are jobs that most Americans simply won't do. And because of that, the government should work to let immigrants in to do those jobs, even if it's on a temporary basis. President George W. Bush outlined that plan to a crowd of more than 300 people at Cruise Terminal 3 at Channelside in Tampa Friday in an appearance meant to boost his administration's Global War on Terror. "If there's a willing employer and a willing worker on a job an American won't do, then it's OK to fill that job, so long as you're not here permanently," Bush said....

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Six men accused in a migrant smuggling attempt that ended in a violent van crash were ordered held without bail Thursday. Border Patrol agents and witnesses identified three men as drivers of three overcrowded vans and the others as foot guides who led more than 90 people from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego's Otay Mesa industrial warehouse district. One van carrying 28 people careened off a state highway into an embankment after the Border Patrol laid spike strips, injuring 21 people, according to authorities. The Mexican Consulate in San Diego said all of the injured have...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 — Mexican criminal syndicates are stepping up their attacks on American agents patrolling the border as officials of the Homeland Security Department intensify efforts to stem the flow of immigrants and drugs into the United States, American officials said this week. In recent months, scores of Border Patrol agents have been fired upon or pelted with large stones as well as with cloth-covered stones that have been doused with flammable liquid and set ablaze. Since October, agents have been attacked in more than 190 cases, officials said on Thursday. Most of the attacks have occurred along the...

The Homeland Security Department plans to stop releasing illegal immigrants into the United States by October, a senior official said Friday. Greg Giddens, program manager for the department's Secure Border Initiative, told Government Executive he has been asked to end the "catch and release" practice by then. A lack of detention bed space has forced the department to release non-Mexican illegal immigrants into the country if they do not have felony convictions and do not pose a threat to national security. Although these illegal immigrants are given a notice to appear in court for deportation proceedings, most never show up...

During the last presidential campaign cycle, many national and local police organizations, as well as individual officers and commanders, supported the reelection of George W. Bush. Commanders and rank-and-file officers understood the fact that compared to the alternatives, Bush was the right man to serve as Commander-in-Chief in wartime. For instance, the nation's largest organization, National Fraternal Order of Police -- representing over 350,000 officers -- endorsed Bush, as did many local organizations such as the New York Police Department's Police Benevolent Association, Detectives Endowment Association and others. But now there's increasing disenchantment with President Bush on his handling of...

WASHINGTON - Federal agents say they will speed up the removal of illegal immigrants caught near the northern U.S. border, extending a program already in effect along the Mexican border. The practice called "expedited removal" speeds up the pace of deportations and makes it less likely that illegal immigrants will slip into the country because immigrant detention centers lack bunk space. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the program part of a nationwide effort to "implement new tactics throughout the U.S. in order to gain control of our borders." Expedited removal has already cut the average length of detentions along...